Customers have their lunch inside a restaurant in Shanghai, China (REUTERS)
A hotpot restaurant in China, has gone viral after a video appeared to show one of its workers scooping used oil from a roadside rubbish bin, sparking outrage and fears it could have been reused in food preparation, as per report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The incident took place on August 18 in southwestern China, when a passerby filmed a woman ladling oil from a swill bin into a plastic bucket. She was dressed in the uniform of the local hotpot restaurant, fuelling suspicion that the oil was destined for the kitchen.
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When asked who told her to collect the oil, she replied: “I just started working here.” The ambiguous response further stoked speculation that the restaurant was recycling waste oil — commonly known in China as “gutter oil” — a practice long linked to food safety scandals.
The video went viral, prompting Xiao, the restaurant’s manager, to issue a public statement. “She had only been there for a few days. The oil she collected was not for use in our restaurant, but she was gathering it to sell to a sanitation company that recycles waste oil,” Xiao told Red Star News, SCMP reported.
Zhang later released a handwritten declaration of her own: “Regarding the video circulating online, I hereby declare that it was my personal action and has no connection to the hotpot restaurant. I scooped the oil for myself to sell.”
Gutter oil is a daily reality in China.
This is not going to change anytime soon,
No matter how much the CCP trolls keep trying to fool you into believing otherwise. pic.twitter.com/Xs3s3Tt2Io
Local regulators confirmed the restaurant’s account. The Jiulong Subdistrict Market Supervision Office said the business was legally selling its waste oil to a licensed sanitation company, SCMP reported. Zhang, they found, had apparently observed this process and attempted to collect discarded oil herself to resell.
In July 2024, The Beijing News reported that tanker trucks once used to carry chemicals and fuel were also being deployed to transport edible oils such as cooking oil and syrup, without proper cleaning. In June 2023, a college cafeteria came under fire after a rice dish allegedly contained the head of a dead mouse, prompting nationwide outrage.
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Customers have their lunch inside a restaurant in Shanghai, China (REUTERS) 
